Bones of Contention: Disputed Dino Is Judged a Frankensaurus

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As if being a fearsome, 70-million-year-old predator wasn't
enough, the dinosaur at the center of an international ownership
dispute is being called a Frankenstein.

The reason: Attorneys maintain that the fossilized skeleton is
made up of bits from multiple dinosaurs belonging to the same
species. In response, the federal judge in the case referred to
the dinosaur as a kind of "Frankenstein model" of dinosaur parts,
according to media reports from Wednesday (Sept. 5).

This description is intended to thwart an attempt by the U.S.
Attorney in Manhattan to take possession of the dinosaur and send
it to Mongolia. Mongolian President Elbegdorj Tsakhia and
paleontologists have maintained that the fossils
were taken illegally from that country.

The attorneys making this "Frankenstein" argument represent the
Florida
fossil dealer Eric Prokopi, who imported and prepared the
fossils before attempting to sell them at auction.

Before it went up for auction on May 20, the dinosaur was
advertised as a 75 percent complete specimen. Prokopi's
attorneys, Peter Tompa and Michael McCullough, are arguing that
the 75 percent includes bones from more than one individual
dinosaur of the same species, Tarbosaurus bataar, an
Asian relative to the North American T. rex. The
remaining quarter of the dinosaur is made from plastic molds from
other fossil specimens, they maintain. [ Paleo-Art:
Stunning Illustrations of Dinosaurs ]

Here's why they are making this argument: Mongolian law does not
allow for the private ownership of fossils, which are considered
state property (although Tompa and McCullough question Mongolian
law in this regard).

North American and Mongolian paleontologists involved in the case
have indicated that all complete or clearly identifiable fossils
from T. bataar have come from within Mongolia. However,
fragmentary remains possibly belonging to this species of
dinosaur have been found elsewhere, including China and
Kazakhstan.

Tompa and McCullough are saying the fossils came in to the United
States in multiple shipments, not as one, as the U.S. Attorney's
office maintains.

On its surface, the description of the dinosaur as a composite
appears to conflict with how the dinosaur was marketed before it
went up for auction on May 20.

In its catalog description, the auction house that offered the
dinosaur for sale, Heritage Auctions, billed it as "an
incredible, complete specimen. … The body is 75 percent complete
and the skull 80 percent."

The description does not refer to the fossil skeleton as a
composite or as coming from a single animal. As it turns out,
this lack of specificity is telling.

"The T. bataar's completeness, with
a body of 75 percent real bone, is very rare for a dinosaur.
In even rarer cases where a dinosaur fossil was demonstrably
derived from one animal, auction houses will typically proclaim
that fact in their catalog descriptions," said David Herskowitz,
who directed the auction for Heritage Auctions, in a statement.
He noted that nearly all skeletons sold are composites.

Heritage spokesman Noah Fleisher later clarified: "If we are
comfortable that we can DEMONSTRATE that all the fossils come
from a single animal, we will note it as such. Therefore, if we
don't note it as such, it either means (1) the specimen is a
composite, or (2) we aren't confident enough that we can prove it
isn't a composite. Also, every bidder that Mr. Herskowitz spoke
to before the sale, including the winning bidder, was fully aware
that the T. bataar was a composite."

After the tentative sale, North American and Mongolian
paleontologists examined the fossils and determined that, yes,
indeed, they did belong to the species in question, T.
bataar,
solidifying the Mongolian claim. The paleontologists'
reports, however, do not address the possibility that more than
one individual dinosaur was represented.

"I did not see any indication that the T. bataar
skeleton came from different individuals, although clearly some
elements were casts, not actual bones," Bolortsetseg Minjin, one
of the Mongolian paleontologists to inspect the fossils, told
LiveScience.

Mark Norell, a paleontologist at the American Museum of
Natural History who contributed to the investigation but who did
not have the chance to examine the dinosaur up close, said he
could not offer an opinion as to whether or not the dinosaur was
a composite.

"It is irrelevant," Norell said. "Whether it was one animal or
whether it was several, exporting a single bone from Mongolia is
against the law."

The assistant U.S. Attorney in the case, Martin Bell, maintained
that the paleontologists had concluded that the fossils
belonged to a single dinosaur, and Bell said the government was
reluctant to take Prokopi's description at face value,
according to Reuters.